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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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ftye JSeto Social ©rber 
tn America 



A STUDY SYLLABUS 



IN THE PRESENT SOCIAL CRISIS 

When old social and economic institutions are being abandoned; 

When government control of industry has been carried to an 
unprecedented degree; 

When legal regulation of wages and prices is being swiftly ex- 
tended ; 

When millions of men are being summoned to service by the gov- 
ernment ; 

When taxation of incomes, profits, inheritances, and luxuries is 
being immensely increased by war necessity; 

When equal suffrage seems imminent; 

When prohibition of the liquor traffic is impending; 

When organized labor has acquired unprecedented influence; 

When extreme radicals are the controlling native force in Russia; 

When the British Labor Party is uniting hand and brain workers 
on a program of fundamental economic reconstruction; 

When capitalists of the Charles H. Schwab type predict the ap- 
proaching domination of America by the manual workers; 

In such a crisis, every thinking person wants to know the rudi- 
ments of the great issues up for decision, to think these issues 
through for himself, and to encourage others to face the social 
reconstruction with equal frankness. As an aid to these ends, this 
study syllabus has been prepared as the co-operative product of 
a number of liberal thinkers. 



Copies may be secured at 15 cents each, eight 
for one dollar, of $12 per hundred, from 
Hornell Hart, 807 Neave Bldg., Cincinnati 



September, 1918 




HOW TO USE THIS SYLLABUS. 

Groups of eight to twelve people, meeting weekly, will get the 
most out of this syllabus. 

Types of groups which might well make use of the outline are 
discussion clubs, college and high-school classes in social prob- 
lems, adult Sunday-school classes, and groups of soldiers and 
sailors in service. You can help to promote thinking along 
these lines by putting such groups into touch with this move- 
ment. 

Make it a discussion course, not a lecture course. One stimulat- 
ing leader may be selected for the whole course, or members 
may be responsible in rotation for the meetings, but in either 
case the chief feature for each meeting should be the inter- 
change of viewpoints by all the members of the group. If 
thought-provoking lecturers can be secured, a possible arrange- 
ment is to devote half or three-quarters of an hour to the lec- 
ture before a large audience, and divide up into small groups 
for an hour of intimate discussion. Debate on questions sug- 
gested for original thought should be emphasized. 

References printed in bold-face should be read, if possible, by 
every member of the group. Other references may be divided 
up among the members, each reporting briefly the essence of 
his reading. If members can devote no time to outside read- 
ing, a mere reading of the syllabus and the discussion growing 
out of it will be decidedly worth while. 

Ask the librarian at your public library to reserve on a special 
shelf the books and periodicals referred to in the syllabus so 
that members of your group can locate them easily. 

If the course is too long for your group, take up the first two 
and the last two sections, with such of the intervening sec- 
tions as seem to your group most important. 

When you have finished the course as a member, become an 
officer in the army of thought by starting a new group. You 
will get more out of :iz the second time, as leader, than you did 
the first as pupil. 



Gift 
-luthor 



H 3 3 % 

I. BASIC PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL JUSTICE. 

After the war, out of the broken traditions, precedents and 
institutions of the past, and out of the emergency machinery 
which the war has created in government and industry, a 
new social order must be built. What sort of an order this 
should be, is the question which this syllabus proposes to 
study. 

A. As a possible area of agreement which our study may ac- 
cept as a basis for the new order, certain principles evolved by 
leaders in social, religious and labor organization work are 
presented herewith for discussion: 

1. Every child should, without his own gainful labor, be 
assured adequate nourishment, wholesome housing, suffi- 
cient clothing, skilled medical care, normal family life, and 
such education and recreation as shall develop his maxi- 
mum capacity for joyous living, and his greatest service- 
ability to society. ; 

2. Adequate incomes should be assured for families up to 
a reasonable limit of size, by one of two methods : a. Every 
able-bodied and able-minded father of a family should be 
guaranteed the opportunity to earn an income sufficient to 
assure such a standard of living to his children, and to their 
mother, or, b. Some form of maternity benefit should be 
provided for the support of mothers and children. 

3. The opportunity to earn at least enough to maintain 
physical and moral health should be assured to all able- 
bodied and able-minded workers. 

4. For workers mentally incompetent to earn a decent 
living, and for women mentally unfit for motherhood, 
cheerful institutional or supervisory care should be pro- 
vided, with provision against reproduction of those whose 
defects are hereditary. 

5. Catastrophies, such as sickness, injury, invalidity, old 
age, death, and unemployment, should be prevented or post- 
poned by all the resources of medical and social science, 
and when they do occur, the resulting economic loss should 
be borne, not by the worker and his dependents, but by 
the community, under provisions calculated to encourage 
prevention of such catastrophies, and to maintain the self- 
respect of the victims. 



6. The conditions of employment should be so adjusted as 
first to secure the health and maximum welfare of the 
workers, and second to attain the largest product consistent 
with that welfare. 

7. The control of industry should be democratized. 

B. The following quotations indicate the widespread accept- 
ance of these axioms : 

1. The War Labor Conference Board (including five of the 
largest employers in the nation, five officers of labor unions 
with over 1,000,000 members, Frank P. Walsh, and Wm, H. 
Taft) states among its principles for the arbitration of 
labor disputes: 

The right of all workers to organize in trade unions and to bargain col- 
lectively through chosen representatives is recognized and affirmed. 
The right of all workers, including common laborers, to a living wage 
is hereby declared. In fixing wages, minimum rates of pay shall be 
established which will insure the subsistence of the worker and his 
family in health and reasonable comfort. 

These principles were officially endorsed by President Wil- 
son on April 8, 1918. 

2. A. Ogden Armour testified in the recent stockyards 
wage hearing: Q. "You want your laborers to have 
enough to live properly, Mr. Armour ?" A. "Naturally." 
Q. "And you are willing for the arbitrator to fix wages 
which will make decent living possible ?" A. "Of course." 

3. Mr. A. Parker Nevin, general counsel of the National 
Association of Manufacturers, is quoted as saying: "We 
want wage determinations based on a scientific and human 
groundwork, not on caprice or brutality." 

4. Among the essentials of a brief war-time program ad- 
vocated by the Federal Childrens' Bureau are the follow- 
ing: 

Public health nurses and suitable medical attention; care of babies 
by their own mothers under decent home conditions; adequate living 
incomes; family allowances for soldiers' families; mothers' pensions 
for civilians; enforcement of child labor laws and full schooling; 
recreation for children and youth, abundant, decent, protected from 
any form of exploitation. 

5. Rev. John A. Ryan, of the Catholic University of Wash- 
ington, in his "A Living Wage" says: "The right to a 
family living wage belongs to every adult male laborer." 
(p. 120.) 



6. The Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in Ameri- 
ca, including the bulk of all the protestant churches in the 
United States, is committed to a platform which includes 
the following: 

The fullest possible development of every child ; the right of all men 
to the opportunity for self -maintenance ; suitable provision for the 
old age of the workers, and for those incapacitated by injury; con- 
servation of health; protection of the workers from dangerous 
machinery, occupational diseases and mortality; reduction of hours 
of labor to the lowest practicable point; the right of employers and 
employes alike to organize; a living wage as the minimum in every 
industry, and for the highest wage that each industry can afford. 

7. The program proposed for the British Labor Party, on 
Labor and the New Social Order, includes this statement: 
'The first principle of the Labor Party * * * is the 
securing to every member of the community, in good times 
and bad alike (and not only to the strong and fortunate), 
of all the requisites of healthy life and worthy citizenship." 

8. The executive council of the American Federation of 
Labor holds that 

Every worker has a right to a just portion of the wealth which he 
helps to create, a full right to earn out of his toil an opportunity 
for his children equal to that of any citizen, a full right that every 
just safeguard shall be afforded him for his physical safety, for his 
health and comfort while at work. Every worker has the right to 
compensation for physical injury or disease occasioned in the course 
of production * * * (and) the additional right to opportunity 
for rehabilitation. 

C. Opposition to social insurance (A, 5) has been voiced by 
employers' and trade union organizations; opposition to pre- 
vention of the propagation of the unfit has been expressed by 
some Catholics; and item A, 1, is opposed by employers of 
child labor. General opposition to all the planks may be ex- 
pected from persons of individualistic philosophy. 

D. For original thought and discussion: 

1. How would you modify the principles set forth under 

1. A, in order to make them represent truly your own con- 
ception of the minimum requirements of social justice? 

2. How many of the I, A, principles are necessarily in- 
volved in the War Labor Conference Board's principles? 

3. Compare the standards established by the government 
in the care of the United States soldiers and their families, 
with the ideals set forth in this section. 



E. Suggested readings. (Read especially the bold-face ref- 
erences. Dip into the others, or ask each member of the group 
to read and report on one.) 

Labor and the New Social Order: New Republic, Feb. 16, 
1918, Pt. II, or Monthly Review, U. S. Bur. Labr. Stat., 
Apr., 1918, pp. 63ff. 

Social Standards of the Love joy Committee of the National 
Conference of Charities, Proceedings 1912 (Cleveland), 
pp. 388-395. 

The Church and Social Service in the U. S. II. F. Ward. 
1914. Pp. 148-184. (Fleming H. Revell, 50 cents.) 

II. HOW FAR DOES AMERICA FALL SHORT OF 
SOCIAL JUSTICE? 

The principles set forth in Section I, so widely accepted by 
church and state, and in part by labor and capital, cannot be 
realized by a return, after the war, to the social status quo 
ante. 

A. The following facts indicate the extent of our failure to 
maintain in the United States the principles of social justice 
outlined in I, A: 

1. A large proportion of the children in the United States 
do not receive the living outlined on page 3 : 

a. "There are in the city of New York at the present 
time (December, 1917) 216,000 children who are seri- 
ously under-nourished, and another 611,000 who are 
only in passable condition, or who may be recorded as 
'borderline cases/ " From the report of an official sur- 
vey made by the Department of Health of New York 
City, in which 171,000 public school children were ex- 
amined. The seriously undernourished were 21 per 
cent of all the children examined. 

b. A study by the City Club of Milwaukee found that 
40 per cent of the children under working age in that 
city come from families with incomes too small to pro- 
vide a wholesome living. 

c. As to education, Ayers shows (Laggards in Our 
Schools, p. 65) that only half of the children in our city 
schools reach the eighth grade, and only one-tenth reach 



the last year of high school. Many of the brightest 
and most of the dull children leave school at 14 to 16 
years of age to go to work. 

d. Chapin found that in New York City, in 1907, among 
families with incomes of $800 to $900, 22 per cent were 
undernourished, 32 per cent underclothed, and 53 per 
cent overcrowded. In lower income groups conditions 
were radically worse. Yet food prices have increased 
since 1907 so that today $1,500 would be required to 
purchase the food which $850 would secure when 
Chapin made his study. 

2. Between 25 and 50 per cent of the married men in the 
United States earn too little to provide for their families : 

a. The United States Immigration Commission report- 
ed that, among wage-earners' families, 43 per cent of 
those with native-born heads, and 66 per cent of those 
with foreign-born heads, had incomes of less than $750 
in 1908, including contributions made by wives, chil- 
dren and boarders. 

b. The Federal Children's Bureau found (1914-1916) 
in its survey of Baltimore, Waterbury, Akron, and Man- 
chester, that 39 per cent of the fathers of babies born 
in these cities earned less than $650 in the year follow- 
ing the baby's birth. 

c. In the states of Massachusetts, Ohio, and California, 
official reports show that 55 per cent of the male wage- 
earners 18 years of age and over earned, when steadily 
employed in manufacturing, less than $15 weekly, or 
less than $780 yearly in 1915. Wages in other indus- 
tries in Ohio (and undoubtedly elsewhere) average 
practically the same as in manufacturing. 

d. Father Ryan says: "The universal application of 
the Living Wage principle * * * would mean an 
increase in various degrees in the remuneration of more 
than 60 per cent of the male adults employed in urban 
occupations. (Op. cit., p. 328.) 

e. Recent wage and cost of living inquiries are practi- 
cally unanimous that, during the world war, the cost 
of living has increased faster than wages. 

3. A large proportion of women workers earn less than 
enough to maintain health and decency. In Ohio, in 1915, 



more than half of the factory and sales women 18 years 
old and over earned less than $8 a week. Of stenographers 
and clerks, one-third earned less than $9 a week. The 
minimum cost of living for women, as determined by wage 
boards in other states before the war, was from $8 to $10. 

4. The percentage of feeblemindedness in the population 
depends upon how one defines feeblemindedness. One per 
cent is an approximation. 

5. The terrific casualties of industrial life run vastly be- 
yond the unavoidable minimum. Hundreds of millions of 
dollars in wages lost through sickness, 100,000 young 
mothers widowed each year, and from one to six and a 
half workers unemployed at a given time, are among the 
preventable catastrophies of industrial life in the United 
States. 

6. Fire hazards, dust, wetness, industrial poisons, excessive 
hours, and destructive strain are still prevalent in Ameri- 
can industry, though such conditions are steadily being 
eliminated. 

B. On the other hand, it should be noted that real wages and 
sanitary standards are decidedly higher in the United States 
than in Europe under pre-war conditions, and immensely 
higher than in Asia. 

C. For original thought and discussion: 

1. Define the minimum justifiable standard of living in 
terms of real income — what kind of a house, what kind of 
food, what kind of clothing, what degree of medical care, 
what kind and amount of education and recreation, should 
be insisted on as a minimum? Should a minimum day's 
work be defined and insisted on as a corollary ? 

2. Collect and turn in references to facts bearing on the 
extent to which social justice is realized in America, com- 
pared with the ideals outlined on page 3, and compared also 
with pre-war conditions in Europe and Asia. 

3. In a democratic system of education, what factors 
should determine how great the opportunity of a pupil shall 
be? Is our educational system democratic? 

8 



4. What are the functions of charity in the elimination of 
social injustice? 

D. Suggested readings : 

Conditions of Labor in American Industries. Lauck and 
Sydenstricker 1917. Pp. 29, 43, 61, 116, 141, 195, 217-219, 

357-383. (Funk & Wagnalls, $1.75.) 

Fluctuations of Unemployment in Cities of the U. S. Hor- 
nell Hart, 1915. Pp. 48-57. (Trounstine Foundation, Cin- 
cinnati, 25 cents.) 

The Bitter Cry of the Children. John Spargo, 1906. (Mac- 
millan, $1.50.) 

People of the Abyss. Jack London, 1903. (Macmillan, 
$1.50.) 

How the Other Half Lives. Jacob A. Riis, 1899. (Scrib- 
ner's, $1.50.) 

Poverty. Robert Hunter, 1904. (Macmillan, $1.50.) 

The Jungle. Upton Sinclair, 1906. (Doubleday, Page, 
$1.50.) 



III. CONSERVATIVE REMEDIES FOR MISERY: 
ECONOMY AND EFFICIENCY. 

Certain groups believe that the world's greatest need after 
the war, as before it, will be to produce the largest possible 
amount of wealth, and to waste the smallest possible amount. 

A. Wastefulness, extravagance, and intemperance of the poor, 
seem to many chief causes of poverty and social maladjust- 
ment. Thrift and temperance are therefore urged as remedies. 

1. In favor of this point of view, it is urged: 

a. That the liquor bill of the United States is nearly 
two billion dollars a year. 

b. That the average American family is said to waste 
enough to feed a European family. 

c. That the poor buy expensive cuts of meat and other 
food luxuries, spend excessively for amusements, and 

9 



use their money extravagantly in prosperous times with 
no thought for the future. 

d. That use of alcohol greatly reduces the efficiency 
of workers. 

2. Further study of this problem brings out these addition- 
al facts: 

a. A government survey in Washington, D. C, in 1916, 
concluded that, under scientifically ideal conditions, the 
least expenditure for food on which an adult male can 
be maintained in normal health and efficiency was 
31 cents per day. In actual practice it was found, how- 
ever, that the lowest expenditure at which any of 31 
families intensively studied attained anything like a 
balanced and adequate ration, was 40 cents per man per 
day. Yet, out of 2,000 representative families studied, 
37 per cent spent less than 31 cents for food per day per 
equivalent of an adult male, while two-thirds spent less 
than 40 cents per day. Not waste, but inadequate in- 
come was the dominant factor. (Mo. Rev. U. S. Bur. 
Labr. Stat. V. 836-8, 1080-1.) 

b. Two separate studies of expenditures for liquor, one 
by the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the other 
by the New York City Health Department, both 
showed that liquor expenditures average very much less 
in families with small incomes than in families better 
able to spare the money. Exceptions, of course, occur. 

c. Every study of family budgets finds that in families 
with small incomes the great bulk of the money goes 
for food, rent and clothing, while very little is spent for 
recreation, health, or other dispensable items. As in- 
comes increase beyond the poverty line, the relative 
importance of non-essentials in the average budget in- 
creases rapidly. Extravagance and luxury, according 
to the most reliable statistics, are in general character- 
istic of the well-to-do, not of the poor, though here 
again exceptions occur. 

B. Malthus, his followers, and recent advocates of family limi- 
tation, urge self-restraint or contraception as remedies for 
poverty. 

10 



1. In favor of this position they assert : 

a. That India and China are proofs of the extreme pov- 
erty which results from over-population. 

b. That the largest families tend to suffer most from 
poverty. In Milwaukee it was found that the average 
size of families with inadequate incomes was 5.2 per- 
sons, while for other families the average was only 4.4. 

c. That children of large families tend to suffer in 
health and vitality. 

2. In opposition to family limitation it is urged : 

a. That contraception is contrary to natural law. 

b. That family limitation encourages abortion. 

c. That the educated and intelligent practice it, while 
the ignorant do not, thus diminishing the good stock, 
and multiplying the inferior. 

C. More effective utilization of natural resources is urged: 

a. The Department of Agriculture estimates that 70 
per cent of the arable land (including grazing land) is 
not under cultivation. 

b. Waterways, it is asserted, have fallen into disuse 
because of discriminatory rates devised by the railroads 
to discourage river traffic. 

c. Water powers and other natural resources are not 
adequately conserved and developed. 

D. Conservation of human resources is urged, on the grounds 
that: 

a. Every worker or potential worker who dies or is in- 
capacitated before the end of his productive life, repre- 
sents a loss of labor power equal to what he would have 
produced above the cost of his maintenance. 

b. Unemployment and sickness cause the loss, on the 
average, of ten per cent of our labor power. 

E. Scientific management of our industries is urged. 

1. Its advocates point out: 

a. That industrial processes are operated at only a frac- 
tion of their possible efficiency, because of lack of scien- 

11 



tific analysis and planning of work, lack of enthusiasm 
on the part of the workers, and deliberate limitation of 
output by workers ; that it would be to the mutual ad- 
vantage of employer and employe to work together 
intelligently to eliminate inefficiency, and that wages 
adequate to abolish poverty would result. 

b. That competitive advertising and marketing, dupli- 
cating and parallelling of railroads, telephones, retail 
stores, retail deliveries, etc., are wasteful, and that the 
getting of food from producer to consumer is needlessly 
,'■ expensive. 

2. Scientific management as an adequate remedy under 
private management, is opposed on various grounds: 

a. That the slacking of workers is due to past expe- 
rience of the cutting of piece-rates by employers as soon 
as processes had been speeded up, and that the same 
exploitation will occur in new forms under scientific 
management. 

b. That scientific management tends to require exces- 
sive speed in work. 

c. That it tends to break down labor organization, and 
thus leave the workers unprotected. 

F. Abolition of war is a most urgent requirement if national 
incomes are to be adequate to abolish misery. If miltiarism 
prevails, the cost of standing armies and navies, and the ex- 
pense and destruction of recurring wars, will absorb a large 
share of the surplus above bare necessities. 

G. General criticisms : Although it is agreed by all that great 
wastes and huge inefficiencies exist, and should be remedied, 
many social thinkers contend that economy and efficiency are 
not primary but secondary. They urge: 

1. That unemployment, wasteful advertising and market- 
ing, disuse of rivers and canals, speculative holding of idle 
land, destruction of crops to increase prices, slacking by 
workers, and other forms of inefficiency, are due funda- 
mentally to an individualistic competitive system of indus- 
try, organized for private profit rather than for the general 
welfare. 

12 



2. That as long as industry is autocratically owned and 
managed, with the owners allowing labor as small a share 
of the product as possible, labor will refuse to co-operate 
enthusiastically in promoting efficiency. 

3. That war, the greatest waste of all, is due to the selfish 
economic competition of individualistic nations. 

4. That the present income of the United States, if it were 
justly distributed, is large enough, under conditions of per- 
manent peace, to make decent living possible for all : 

a. The total income of the United States is now, accord- 
ing to the Bankers Trust Company of New York City, 
50 billion dollars, or $2,200 per family per year. 

b. In 1910, when the total national income was 30.5 
billions, the income paid to property holders in ground 
rent and interest amounted to 7.8 billions, or about $400 
for each family in the United States. The total savings 
of the country were two billions, or only $100 per fam- 
ily. (W. I. King, Wealth and Income of the People of 
the U. S., pp. 132 and 158.) 

c. The amount of money which the incomes of poor 
families in the United States were short of the amounts 
needed to make normal living possible, was roughly 
about 1.5 billions a year in 1910, or about one-fourth of 
the property income minus savings. In other words, 
the poverty deficit could be met without touching exist- 
ing wages or salaries, without diminishing savings, and 
with the bulk of existing ground rent and interest still 
intact. 

5. That, although our national income is large enough, even 
now, practically to abolish poverty, a vastly disproportion- 
ate share of it goes to a favored minority of the people: 

a. The Bankers Trust Company of New York City esti- 
mates that ten million poor families and individuals 
have average incomes of $700 a year, while ten thou- 
sand rich families and individuals have average yearly 
incomes of $275,000. 

b. Wilford I. King estimates that in 1910, the richest 
2 per cent of the families and individuals in the United 
States received as much income as the poorest 40 per 
cent. 

13 



H. For original thought and discussion: 

1. What effects upon efficiency in production has the meth- 
od of determining the worker's share of the product? 

2. As means toward the abolition of poverty, which is most 
important: increasing the total product of industry, or 
arriving at a juster distribution of the product already 
being produced? 

3. Compare the advantages of competition in stimulating 
effort and initiative, with its wastes and inefficiencies. 

4. How can the wastes of the rich be eliminated? 

5. Discuss the relative importance of prevention of future 
wars as compared with other items in a program of effi- 
ciency and economy. 

I. Suggested readings: 

Scientific Management and Labor. Robert F. Hoxie, 1915. 
Pp. 7-19 and 123-136 (D. Appleton, $1.50), or the Survey, 
35:673-680. 

Wealth and Income of the People of the U. S. W. I. King, 
1915. Pp. 79, 158, 224-229, and 238-255. (Macmillan, 
$1.50.) 

Scientific Management and the Railroads. Louis D. Bran- 
deis, 1911. (The Engineers' Magazine Co., N. Y. C., $1.50.) 

Labor's Share of the Social Product. Basil M. Manley. 
Annals of the American Academy, 69:128-132. 

Has Scientific Management Made Good? Literary Digest, 
51:1345-7. 

Lower Living Costs in Cities. Clyde L. King, 1915. Pp. 
7-11, 173-181, etc. (Appleton, $1.50.) 
The High Cost of Living. Frederic C. Howe, 1917. (Scrib- 
ner's, $1.50.) 

Birth Control. S. A. Kopf. Survey, 37:161-165. 

Other People's Money. Louis D. Brandeis, 1913. Pp. 162- 
207. (Fredr. A. Stokes, $1.00.) 

Social Control of the Acquisition of Wealth. Edw. C. 
Hayes. Am. Econ. Rev., 8:Sup. 194-211 (March, 1918). 

14 



IV. CONSERVATIVE REMEDIES FOR MISERY: 
SOCIAL INSURANCE. 

A. Workmen's Compensation for industrial accidents has be- 
come an accomplished fact in 37 states. Payments in one year 
to injured workmen and their families have been, in Ohio, $2,- 
000,000; in Minnesota, $400,000; in Massachusetts, $1,200,000; 
in New York State, $2,500,000; with proportionately large 
amounts in other states. The Safety First movement, stimu- 
lated largely by workmen's compensation laws, is saving ap- 
proximately 4,000 lives annually. Yet industrial accidents 
still kill 25,000 men a year, and permanently injure 125,000. 
Non-industrial accidents, which are not covered by workmen's 
compensation, cause three times as many deaths. 

B. Health Insurance. 

1. In favor of Health Insurance it is urged: 

a. That the tremendous wage loss caused by sickness 
should be borne by industry as a whole, not by the in- 
dividual victims. The wage loss from sickness in this 
country is estimated by the National Industrial Con- 
ference Board at between half and three-quarters of a 
billion dollars a year, though that board opposes health 
insurance. 

b. That sickness is responsible for a large proportion 
of the applications for charity. 

c. That the medical service included in health insurance 
will greatly reduce the extent and duration of sickness, 
and that the desire to secure lower rates will stimulate 
preventive measures by both employers and employes. 

2. In opposition it is urged: 

a. That the self-reliance and thrift of workers would 
be discouraged. 

b. That the cost of the plan is too great for practica- 
bility. 

c. That a campaign of prevention should be substituted. 

d. That the interests of doctors, unions, lodges, and 
private insurance companies might suffer. 

e. That the compulsory feature is contrary to Ameri- 
can ideals. 

15 



C. Widowhood is our most serious catastrophe. Nearly 100^ 
000 married men under 45 years of age die each year in the 
United States. The majority of these leave their wives with 
children too young to work. Of the married men who die, one- 
third are victims of tuberculosis. Accidents, heart trouble, 
and pneumonia are other leading causes. A large fraction of 
the deaths from such causes are preventable. 

1. Mothers' pensions are urged as a means of supporting 
the widows and children. 

a. In favor of this policy it is urged that the children 
are innocent victims of misfortune, to whom the state 
owes protection; that it is cheaper, and better for the 
family, to support these children at home rather than 
in institutions, and that the mothers are rendering a 
service to the state, for which they are entitled to com- 
pensation. 

2. Maternity grants to all mothers are advocated by some. 

a. They urge that women should not be economically 
dependent upon men, that a man's wages do not expand 
with the expansion of his family, that poverty in fami- 
lies with small children is the leading cause of infant 
mortality, bad housing, delinquency, employment of 
mothers and other evils, and that families under this 
plan would be safe from all types of economic catas- 
trophe. 

b. In opposition it is urged that such grants would en- 
courage the thriftless to have large families, and would 
thus soon reduce all to poverty through over-population, 
that it would take from fathers the stimulus to steady 
and energetic work, and would encourage desertion 
and illegitimacy. 

3. Socialization of life insurance, so as to cover all fathers 
of young children adequately, has been suggested. 

D. Old-age pensions are advocated by many, and are in opera- 
tion in England and other countries. 

1. In favor it is urged that men and women who have 
labored faithfully should not be left in want or dependent 
on charity in old age. 

2. Opponents urge that such a system would be costly and 
would discourage thrift. 

16 



E. Unemployment insurance is advocated by many. 

1. In favor it is stated that inability to find work is not 
the fault of worker, that prolonged want due to unemploy- 
ment frequently demoralizes the worker and his family, 
and that such insurance might be used as a leverage to 
promote regularization of employment. 

2. In opposition it is urged that prevention of unemploy- 
ment is vastly more important, that such insurance would 
stimulate idleness, that workers should themselves save 
in advance for such emergencies. 

F. For original thought and discussion: 

1. What arguments, for and against, are equally applicable 
to all types of social insurance? 

2. How much of the cost of social insurance is a new ex- 
penditure, and how much a transfer of existing expendi- 
tures ? 

3. What arguments for and against social insurance are 
equally applicable to fire insurance? 

4. To what extent are the principles and machinery of the 
war risks insurance act, including the provision for allot- 
ments, separation allowances, compensation for crippled 
soldiers, and death benefits, appropriate for, and capable of 
extension into a general system of social insurance for 
civilians ? 

5. To what extent can social insurance take the place of 
charity? 

G« Suggested readings: 

Principles of Labor Legislation. John R. Commons and 
J. B. Andrews, 1916. Pp. 354-414. (Harper, $2.00.) 
Some Fallacies of Compulsory Health Insurance. Hoff- 
man. Scientific Monthly, 4:306-316 (April, 1917). Re- 
prints of this can probably be secured from the Prudential 
Life Insurance Company. 

Compulsory Health Insurance. Thomas H. Simpson. Re- 
view of Reviews, 55:414-416. 

Capital and Labor (objections). Survey, 37:495-496 
(1917). 

17 



Mothers on the Payroll. Sherman M. Craiger. Review of 
Reviews, 52:81-84. 

Soldiers' Insurance. Wm. G. McAdoo. Outlook, 117:119, 
121-122. 

Soldiers' Insurance. Survey, 38:435-437, 504-505, 541-544. 

Samuel Gompers Against; Bui. No. 212 of the U. S. Bur. 
Lab. Stat, pp. 845-849. 

For more extended reading, see Social Insurance, by Henry 
R. Seager, by Robert M. Woodbury, or by I. M. Rubinow, 
or Unemployment Insurance, by I. G. Gibbon. 

V. CONSERVATIVE REMEDIES: 
WAGE AND PRICE BARGAINING. 

A. Trade unions and some industrial unions are the organized 
attempt of the workers to better their own bargaining power. 

1. In favor of unionism it is urged: 

a. That the individual worker is at a hopeless disadvan- 
tage when he drives a bargain with a great corporation, 
and hence that collective bargaining is essential. 

b. That real betterment of wages and working condi- 
tions can come only through collective economic action 
of the workers themselves. 

c. That the defects of unionism, such as violence, re- 
striction of output and the like, are forced on the 
workers by the tactics of the employer. 

d. That the membership, and hence the possible ef- 
fectiveness of trade unions is swiftly growing, and that 
the A. F. of L. has announced its intention of making 
increased efforts to organize the unskilled. 

2. In opposition, conservatives urge: 

a. That unions are selfish and despotic in their use of 
power against the employer, the public, and other 
workers. 

b. That they deliberately limit the amount of work 
done. 

c. That their regulations hinder the introduction of 
labor-saving machinery and methods, and are vexatious 
and irritating. 

18 



d. That strikes are accompanied by violence and de- 
struction of property. 

3. By radicals, unionism is criticized on the grounds: 

a. That the great majority of the poorly paid workers 
are not helped by the unions. In 1900 only 4 per cent 
of the wage-earners in the United States were union 
members. In 1910 it had increased to 7 per cent, but 
even allowing for a doubling of membership in the past 
eight years, 85 per cent of the wage-earners are still 
not unionized. 

b. While prices of food increased 39 per cent from 1907 
to 1916, weekly wages of union men increased only 19 
per cent, so that a week's union wage would buy 20 
per cent less food in 1916 than in 1907. (Bui. U. S. 
Labr. Stat. No. 214, p. 24.) 

B. Government regulation of wages and prices is a means of 
adjusting the distribution of income. 

1. As instances may be quoted the following: 

a. The Food Administration has unquestionably pre- 
vented a high speculative rise in some prices. 

b. Government rulings have brought wage increases in 
the stockyards, on the railroads, and elsewhere. 

c. Minimum wage boards have decidedly increased 
wages for women in some states, 

2. However: 

a. The recent railroad wage increase aimed simply to 
cover the increase in cost of living since 1915, without 
attempting to remedy the huge inadequacy of wages 
which existed at old price levels. 

b. Higher wages on railroads and at the stock yards 
mean higher freight rates and meat prices, while regu- 
lated street car fares are said to be the reason for fail- 
ure to increase wages of street railway employes. 

C. Shutting off immigration reduces, for the United States, 
the supply of labor, increases average productivity per worker, 
and betters the bargaining power of the workers. Its effects 
on the world at large are more obscure. 

19 



D. Profit sharing, and benefit schemes for employes may give 
the workers a larger share of the output. 

1. In their favor it is urged that they stimulate employes 
to take a personal interest in the success of the business, 
diminish the turnover of labor, eliminate strikes, and in- 
crease earnings. 

2. In opposition it is urged that such plans are drawn up 
in such a way as to prevent employes from joining a union, 
from striking, or even from quitting, that they are pater- 
nalistic and undemocratic, and that they produce a larger 
product for the employer rather than increase the worker's 
share in the product. 

E. Monopoly prices, stock juggling, financial wrecking of rail- 
roads, stock watering, and kindred financial crimes take huge 
amounts from the people each year in excessive prices or in 
money lost in investments. Conservative remedies offered for 
this condition are regulation by commissions, dissolution of 
trusts, publicity, and so on. 

F. General objections to increased bargaining power as a 
remedy : 

1. In actual practice, labor unions, government wage and 
price fixing, and regulation of large financial powers have 
merely helped to prevent a possible aggravation of exist- 
ing economic injustices rather than achieved fundamental 
improvements. 

2. Unless wages and prices are regulated with reference 
to each other, increases in wages cause increased prices, 
while lowered prices cause reduced wages. 

3. All government rate and wage determinations, and, in- 
deed, all wage bargaining under existing economic systems, 
must take into account the necessity for maintaining a 
supply of capital for the industry, and therefore must 
maintain intact the property income — dividends and in- 
terest. Thus, under private ownership of the railroads, 
the government guarantees the earnings of the roads in 
order to maintain dividends and attracts the capital nec- 
essary to extend and improve them. Since this is neces- 
sary under private ownership, the proportionate share of 
the product given to labor cannot, under private ownership, 
be much increased. 

20 



G. We are led thus to consider whether the present system of 
paying land-rent and interest to the owners of land and capital 
shall continue. Theoretically, these payments are made in 
order to stimulate saving, and to prevent the consumption of 
capital already saved. W. I. King shows, however, that in 
1910, 7.8 billions were paid in ground rent and interest, and 
only 2 billions were saved, in the United States. The reward 
for saving was thus four times the amount of new savings. 
Various proposals for turning all of this property income over 
to the hand and brain workers will be discussed in succeeding 
sections. 

H. For original thought and discussion: 

1. Discuss the justice of the following ideal of distribution: 
"The product of industry should be divided with a view 
solely to promoting the maximum production, to protect- 
ing all workers, children, old people and unfortunates from 
poverty, and to attaining for the whole community the 
greatest possible psychic income." 

2. Should government control of wages and prices be ex- 
tended or diminished after the war? 

3. If the government were to fix, for all industries, mini- 
mum wages at a living level, and provide that these wage 
rates should change automatically with changes in the 
cost of living, what would be the effect upon the distribu- 
tion of income, and on the present economic system ? 

4. Discuss the merits of co-operative buying. 

5. If its best possibilities were realized, how far could labor 
unionism of the American Federation of Labor type go 
toward the establishment of social justice? 

6. What would be the logical outcome of the present gov- 
ernment policy toward labor? 

7. What occidental policy toward oriental immigration 
would be best for the world as a whole ? 

I. Suggested readings: 

Organized Labor in America. Geo. G. Groat, 1918. Pp. 
455-489. (Macmillan, $1.75.) 

21 



Principles of Labor Legislation. Commons and Andrews, 
1916. Chapter III, Collective Bargaining, pp. 91-124; IV, 
The Minimum Wage, pp. 167-196. (Harper, $2.00.) 

Trade Unionism in the U. S. Robert F. Hoxie, 1917. 
(D. Appleton, $2.50.) 

American Labor Unions. Helen Marot, 1918, Pp. 11-28. 
(H. Holt, $1.25.) 

Organized Labor. John Mitchell, 1903. Pp. 1-11. (Amer. 
Book and Bible House.) 

Articles Against Unions: The Unpopular Review, 5:254- 
274; 6:276-293; 8:168-179. 

Other People's Money and How the Bankers Use It. 
Louis D. Brandeis, 1913. Pp. 1-27. (Fredr. H. Stokes, 
$1.00.) 

Governmental Price Regulation. E. R. A. Seligman. Re- 
view of Reviews, 56:289-292. 

Can a Democratic Government Control Prices? George 
Creel. Century, 93:605-611 (Feb., 1917). 

Copartnership and Profit Sharing. Aneurin Williams, 1913. 
(H. Holt, 60 cents.) 

Profit Sharing. Arthur Burritt and others, 1918. (Har- 
per, $2.50.) 

For Value Received. John Fitched. The Survey, 40:221 
(May 25, 1918). 

VI. TAXATION AS A MEANS TOWARD SOCIAL 

JUSTICE. 

A. The income tax is being increasingly used as a means of 
placing the cost of government upon those best able to bear it. 

1. Among the arguments in its favor are: 

a. That the cost of maintaining the local, state, and 
national governments, amounting, before the war to 
about $150 per family in the United States, has been 
placed on the general consumer by the tariff and the 
general property tax. 

22 



b. That the general property tax is extremely difficult 
to collect equitably. 

c. That a graduated income tax rests entirely upon 
those with adequate incomes, and relieves the poor. 

2. The chief objection raised against high rates of income 
taxation is the fear lest it discourage business initiative 
and ambition. 

B. Elimination of all taxes except those on land (exclusive of 
improvements) and adjustment of the rate of this tax so as 
to absorb the entire ground rent, is advocated by "single 
taxers." 

1. In favor of this plan it is urged: 

a. That the private ownership of land and private re- 
ceipt of rent are unjust, because the value of land is 
created by nature and by the community, not by the 
individual. 

b. That such a tax, by forcing speculators to release 
land into use, would greatly stimulate production. 

c. That unemployment and low wages would disappear 
because of the great increase in the demand for labor 
to utilize land now idle. 

d. That the single tax would eliminate the congestion 
which is responsible for bad housing. 

e. That all the benefits of competition would be re- 
stored by single tax, since it would eliminate the monop- 
oly of land, which, they assert, is the source of all 
monopoly. 

f. That this program would achieve social justice with- 
out interfering with private initiative or private owner- 
ship of capital. 

2. In criticism of single tax it is contended : 

a. That the building and industrial boom expected as 
a result of single tax might very likely be followed by 
a collapse, with recurring unemployment and low 
wages, and that the unemployed are not a constant sur- 
plus of labor, but a fluctuating army, sometimes vast, 
sometimes small, which no sweeping increase in labor 
demand would absorb. 

23 



b. That monopoly is due to other causes in addition to 
private ownership of land. 

c. That the pure land value of agricultural land cannot 
be separated from the value of such improvements as 
clearing, breaking, and fertilization. 

d. That the private ownership of capital is, in practice, 
as unjustifiable as of land, and that interest is as un- 
earned as land rent. 

e. That private competition in industry, which single 
taxers propose to re-establish, is wasteful and damaging 

:. to the interests of both the worker and the consumer. 

C. Progressive inheritance taxes have been urged 

1. As a means of breaking up large fortunes, of securing 
funds to purchase for the government public utilities, and 
of financing social insurance plans. 

a. Probably 5 to 10 billion dollars per year is inherited 
in the United States. With such a fund, or a fraction 
of it, railroads, mines and other basic utilities could be 
purchased rapidly, decreasing thereby the property in- 
come exacted from the public. 

2. In opposition, in addition to arguments directed against 
public ownership, and social insurance, it is urged that 
large fortunes would be driven from states or nations levy- 
ing heavy inheritance taxes, and that if such taxes were 
employed for current expenses, the supply of capital would 
be depleted. 

D. For original thought and discussion: 

1. How long would it take the government, through a 50 
per cent inheritance tax, to acquire control of all the large 
industries ? 

2. What would be the outcome of a state in which the taxes 
were all paid, without shifting, by a small minority of the 
people? 

3. Arrange a debate between a single taxer and a socialist. 

4. Assuming that public ownership of all the large indus- 
tries is advisable, how would you advocate securing title 
to them? 

5. How would you finance an adequate system of social in- 
surance? 

24 



6. To what extent would the reasons which led to the pres- 
ent system of war taxes justify the application of similar 
taxes to financing the solution of the social problems of 
peace? 

E. Suggested readings : 

An Endowment for the State. Alvin Johnson. Atlantic, 
115:30-35. 

The Taxation of Land Values. Vetta Scheftel, 1916. Pp. 
384-421. (Houghton, Mifflin, $2.00.) 

The Taxation of Land Values. Louis Post, 1915. (Bobbs- 
Merrill, $1.00.) 

Shall New York City Untax Buildings? C. C. Williamson. 
Survey, 36:332-334 (1916). 

Progress and Poverty. Henry George, 1879. (Doubleday, 
50 cents.) 

A Fund for Social Welfare. New Republic, 4:93-94. 

Final Report of the Commission on Industrial Relations, 
1915. J. R. Commons. Federal Fund for Social Welfare, 
pp. 389-395. 

Vn. PUBLIC OWNERSHIP OF LAND AND CAPITAL. 

A. Many progressives advocate that the whole share of the 
national income which now goes to owners of property should 
go to the hand and brain workers. Ground-rent, interest, and 
profits should, they claim, be abolished, and the funds now paid 
to the capitalists should go to the workers in the form of 
higher compensation and lower prices. These ends are to be 
accomplished through public ownership and operation of all 
the important industries, including mines, forests, transporta- 
tion systems, factories, wholesale and retail stores. The func- 
tion of property income would then disappear, since the state 
itself would set aside the funds necessary for the maintenance 
and extension of the means of production. 

B. This proposal is not 

1. A program for dividing up equally the existing wealth, 
nor 

25 



2. Communism, which seeks absolute equality or even iden- 
tity in income for everyone, nor 

3. Anarchism, which seeks the abolition of all compulsory 
or forcible government; 

4. Nor is it an attack upon patriotism, religion, or family 
life. 

C. Among the advantages claimed for public ownership as 
above defined are: 

1. That it would automatically provide adequate earnings. 

2. That the state would provide adequately for all the 
helpless and unfortunate. 

3. That every child would have a fair start in life, with 
opportunities proportionate to abilities. 

4. That the wastes of competition would be eliminated. 

5. That the motive for fraudulent exploitation of the pub- 
lic would be removed, for private business, being elimi- 
nated, could no longer bribe officials, manipulate stock, 
charge excessive prices, adulterate goods, nor exploit nat- 
ural resources. 

6. That efficiency would be increased, since the workers 
would be stimulated to more enthusiastic effort by the 
knowledge that they would be producing for their own 
benefit and that of their fellows instead of for private 
profit. The success of the Panama Canal, and the relative 
economy and efficiency of the parcels post as compared with 
private express companies, are adduced as evidences of 
possible efficiency under public management. 

7. That the substitution of public welfare instead of pri- 
vate profit as the mainspring of industry would eliminate 
great evils. 

8. That the absence of poverty and extreme wealth would 
eliminate large fractions of our present crime, disease, and 
social unrest. 

9. That personal freedom would be increased by the short- 
ening of the hours of labor, by the extension and better 
adjustment of education, by more adequate incomes, and 

26 



by the consideration of the worker's rights as of first im- 
portance in determining the conditions of labor. 

10. That war would be eliminated by the removal of the 
capitalistic struggle for markets and for commercial ad- 
vantage, and by the application of the ideals of internation- 
al justice. 

D. Among objections raised against public ownership are: 

1. That it would greatly reduce the efficiency of production. 
Opponents assert that the incentive of private profit and 
of the ambition to accumulate income-producing property 
and hand it on to one's children, is essential to the mainte- 
nance of vigor, initiative and enterprise; that qualities of 
leadership would not be developed, but that a dead level 
of individuals unfitted for anything but a particular job 
would result. They point to the notorious distrust which 
democracies exhibit toward experts, to the inefficiency of 
many city and state governments, and to the reputed stag- 
nation in the government civil service, as evidences of the 
inherent inefficiency of public management. 

2. That it would be difficult to fix prices and rates of 
compensation justly under complete public ownership. 

3. That personal liberty and freedom of action would be 
sacrificed. 

4. That the evils of the present system are due to defects 
of human nature, which no change of system would elimi- 
nate. Under public ownership, they suggest, favoritism 
would still be possible in promoting individuals to positions 
of authority, in granting larger compensation, in giving 
educational opportunities to children, and elsewhere. 

5. Many radicals object that the control of industry 
through a government bureaucracy would not be industrial 
democracy. Government employes are not allowed to 
unionize. Postoffice employes have been prevented by the 
most repressive regulations from having any voice in de- 
termining their own working conditions. The workers, 
these objectors argue, should control their working condi- 
tions directly, and not merely as voters in a huge electorate. 

27 



E. For original thought and discussion : 

1. How would public ownership of land and capital affect 
each of the deficiencies of the present system noted in 
Section II, pp. 6-8 ? 

2. Compare and elaborate the arguments for and against 
the efficiency of publicly owned and operated industry. 

3. Would individuality have a better chance for full devel- 
opment under public ownership or under capitalism? 

4. Discuss the merits of co-operative production. 

F. Suggested readings: 

Economic Reconstruction. John R. Commons. American 
Economics Review, 8:Sup. 5-17 (March, 1918). 

Outlines of Economics. R. T. Ely, 1916. Chapter XXX on 
Socialism, pp. 627-640. (Macmillan, $2.25.) 

The Old Order Changeth. T. P. Shonts, 1918. (165 Broad- 
way, N. Y. C.) 

Where and Why Public Ownership Has Failed. Yves 
Guyot, 1914, (Macmillan, $1.50.) 

Principles of Economics. F. W. Taussig, 1911. Vol. II, pp. 
443-479. (Macmillan, $2.00.) 

Socialism. Compiled by E. C. Robbins, 1915. (H. W. Wil- 
son, $1.25.) 

The Essentials of Socialism. Ira B. Cross, 1912. (Mac- 
millan, $1.25.) 

Socialism — Promise or Menace. Hilquit and Ryan, 1914. 
(Macmillan, $1.25.) 

VIII. INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY. 

A. That hand and brain workers should have, and will have, 
a large and increasing voice in the control of industry is a 
commonplace of current thought. Industrial democracy is 
essential for the following reasons : 

1. To promote efficiency. At the Westchester County 
(N. Y.) House of Correction a gang of men recruited from 

28 



drunks, thieves, and vagrants, were organized into a mu- 
tual welfare league, and were set to digging foundations in 
competition with a gang of hired laborers. The contractor 
told the warden that he would like to trade gangs, because 
the prisoners were so much more efficient than the hired 
men. If democracy is good for jail bums, why would it 
not put new life into free workmen ? 

2. To promote justice in distribution and in determination 
of working conditions. It is axiomatic in law that justice 
can be achieved only when all the interests involved are 
adequately represented. 

3. Because consistency requires that while we fight for 
political democracy, we shall achieve industrial democracy. 

B. Industrial unionism, or syndicalism, is a form of organiza- 
tion urged by workers in many countries as a means to indus- 
trial democracy. They propose to organize the workers of 
each industry in one big union, such as mine workers, or steel 
workers, contrasting with trade unions, which are organized 
by crafts, such as plumbers, or type-setters. Industrial unions 
include the unskilled as well as the skilled. The syndicalist 
theory represents a reaction against state control of any sort, 
and postulates the substitution of industrial, direct action for 
political action. The Industrial Workers of the World, who 
represent the syndicalist movement in America, arose as a 
protest against conditions existing in the western mines and 
lumber camps. Its members have been described as home- 
less, jobless, voteless, womenless men." 

1. By those favoring syndicalism it is argued: 

a. That the state at present is controlled by a small 
group of economically powerful men, the large capital- 
ists, who own the newspapers, finance the old political 
parties, and control to a greater or less extent the 
churches and universities. That the worker has there- 
fore nothing to hope from political action, but must 
put his faith in industrial action where he can be 
effective if organized. 

b. That political action as the means of remedying 
grievances is indirect and delayed, while direct action 
(sabotage) is more speedy and effective. 

c. That work should be the basic qualification for citi- 
zenship. 

29 



d. That casual workers, who are disfranchised by 
moving about, and immigrants are entitled to a voice 
in the control of industry, which they get through 
direct action. 

2. Those opposing syndicalism contend: 

a. That such a program ignores all interests except 
those of labor, and that the consumer as such would not 
be represented. 

b. That powerful industries, like steel production, or 
meat packing, would secure tyrannical control over the 
community, charging excessive prices and paying un- 
justly high wages. 

c. That the abolition of the civil government, with re- 
sulting absence of control over criminals, abandonment 
of compulsory education, and other anarchistic features, 
would be highly dangerous and destructive. 

d. That such a system would place the control of in- 
dustry in the hands of the most ignorant and incompe- 
tent, and that democratic control of administration 
would make speed and freedom of executive action im- 
possible. 

e. That the I. W. W. is merely an uncontrolled agita- 
tion, chafing against authority, with no definite or con- 
sistent body of ideas. 

C. Guild socialism is a program which aims to combine indus- 
trial unionism, the abolition of property income, and the reten- 
tion of the civil government. It demands that each industry 
shall be controlled by the hand and brain workers who operate 
it ; that the body politic of the nation shall include two houses, 
one composed of citizens elected on a geographical basis, the 
other of members representing the various democratically 
organized industries. The ownership of land and capital would 
be vested in the state thus constituted, and loaned as required 
to the industries. This plan differs from orthodox socialism 
in that it provides for industrial democracy; it differs from 
syndicalism in that it retains a state, with representation of 
the consumer, and in that it provides a higher power to adjust 
conflicts between industries. It differs entirely from anar- 
chism, for it proposes to maintain government in its full sense. 

30 



D. For original thought and discussion : 

1. Draw up, for guild socialism, the arguments pro and 
con. 

2. What essential reasons would make an industry con- 
trolled by a board of directors elected by the hand and 
brain workers less efficient than an industry controlled by 
a board elected by absentee stockholders? 

3. What are the fundamental differences between the 
group of remedies which includes economy, efficiency, in- 
creased bargaining power and social insurance, and the 
group which includes public ownership, syndicalism, and 
guild socialism? 

4. To what extent could trade unions be developed into the 
units of an industrial democracy? 

5. To which, if to any, of the remedies mentioned in this 
outline, do the teachings of Jesus give support? How so? 

6. Find a parallel in existing industrial organization for 
each of the following forms of political organization: Ab- 
solute hereditary monarchy ; benevolent despotism ; limited 
monarchy ; Prussian electoral system ; republic. 

E. Suggested readings: 

British Labor in Wartime. G. D. H. Cole. New Republic, 
XV, p. 140 (June 1, 1918). 

Socialism. E. C. Robbins, 1915. Pp. 169-179. (H. W. 
Wilson, $1.25.) 

Organized Labor in America. Geo. G. Groat, 1916. Pp. 
408-452. (Macmillan, $1.75.) 

Self -Government in Industry. G. D. H. Cole. 

Syndicalism, Industrial Unionism, and Socialism. John 
Spargo, 1913. (Huebsch, $1.25.) 

State Socialism Pro and Con. Walling and Laidler, 1917. 
(H. Holt, $1.25.) 

State Socialism in New Zealand. Jas. E. Le Rossignol, 
1910. (Crowell, $1.50.) 

31 



National Guilds. A. R. Orage. 

The New Democracy. W. E. Weyl. 

Political Ideals. Bertrand Russell, 1917. (Century, $1.00.) 

Democracy After the War. H. A. Hobson, 1917. (Mac- 
millan, $1.25.) 

IX. WAR MATERIALS FOR A NEW SOCIAL 

ORDER. 

A. As a basis for discussion, the following constructive pro- 
gram is offered. It is founded upon the belief that the basic 
ideals of social justice upon which this discussion is founded 
can very largely be realized by the simple retention and 
logical extension of the principles adopted and acted upon by 
the government during the war in its dealings with soldiers 
and war workers, and that the machinery created for apply- 
ing these principles may be capable of extension and perfec- 
tion to deal adequately with the corresponding civilian prob- 
lems. It is believed that such a program would avoid most 
of the dangers of the other remedies proposed, and would 
retain many of their advantages. Such a program would pro- 
ceed on the soundest evolutionary principles. 

1. Social Insurance. The government has recognized its obli- 
gation to assure to the dependents of soldiers, during the 
absence of, or in case of the death or injury of, the bread- 
winner, incomes adjusted to their needs, by a system of in- 
surance and allowances. This principle of protection for 
dependents should be extended to all workers and their fami- 
lies, and the war machinery perpetuated, with improvements 
calculated to adjust it to other existing agencies, as a peace 
instrument for administering a comprehensive plan of social 
insurance. The plans being made for rehabilitating war 
cripples, should be extended to industrial cripples. 

2. Housing. The government has recognized officially the 
necessity for providing adequate housing for war workers. 
Let the machinery created for this purpose develop plans for 
adequate housing for all workers. 

3. Education. Soldiers are tested mentally, and the most 
promising, in test and in action, are given opportunities for 



education as officers at government expense. The same prin- 
ciple fits civilians. 

4. Recreation. Wholesome recreation at government expense 
is recognized as a necessity for the preservation of efficiency, 
and the abatement of vice. This is equally true in civil life. 
Machinery has been created for army recreation which might 
be developed for the whole people. 

5. Regular Employment. Between drives, and in winter when 
activity slackens down, soldiers are retained in the army pay- 
roll so as to preserve organization and skill, and to protect 
the soldier from loss. The same principles apply to industry. 
Machinery for adjusting the labor supply to the demand 
through labor exchanges, has been developed for war purposes. 
Demobilization, however, will bring an employment crisis of 
unprecedented extent, with five to ten millions of workers to 
be transferred from war to peace occupations. Machinery 
should be created now to deal with this crisis. If the demand 
for labor is likely to be slack through temporary disorganiza- 
tion of industry, plans for government work in improving and 
extending railroads, highways and waterways, public build- 
ings, water powers and other public works, should be prepared 
for a ten-year period, and contracts let immediately at the 
close of the war for as much of the work as is required to 
absorb the labor supply. Agricultural lands now idle should 
be made available to returning soldiers for large scale farming 
under government management, or for intensive individual 
farming. The government should exercise permanently the 
same foresight and executive skill to keep the full labor power 
of the country constantly and effectively occupied, as the 
military authorities use to keep the full fighting power of the 
nation constantly and effectively occupied in war time. 

6. Wage and Price Adjustment. The war labor board has 
established the principle of minimum wages adequate to assure 
the worker and his family maintenance in health and reason- 
able comfort. Let the machinery created to carry out this 
principle, and to assure prices calculated to maintain real 
wages, be extended and perfected. Wages should be adjusted 
with a decent living as a minimum, and should be arranged 
on a sliding scale, so as to change automatically with fluctua- 
tions in the cost of living. Industries or establishments unable 

33 



to pay the wages ordered, while charging the prices fixed, 
should be placed under government receivership, with wages 
as the first lien on income. 

7. Health Protection. A vast organization has been built up 
to protect the health of soldiers at government expense. The 
same protection should be extended to civilians, and the or- 
ganization perpetuated and extended to that end. Medical 
care should be provided freely by the government for the 
entire community, just as education is freely provided, and 
the emphasis should be placed, as in the army, on prevention. 

8. Efficiency and Economy. Steps taken during the war to 
eliminate waste of food, fuel, and other materials, to organize 
transportation on an efficient basis, to standardize equipment, 
and the like, should be continued and extended. 

9. Taxation. In war, the government has acted on the prin- 
ciple that the larger incomes were as much subject to govern- 
ment command for the good of the nation as are the lives of 
the soldiers. This principle should be extended to peace 
times. The costs of the program outlined above should be 
met by heavy progressive income taxes, and taxes on luxuries 
and profits. Interest on the war debt should be met out of 
this fund. Confiscatory inheritance taxes should be placed 
on all estates of over $100,000, and the proceeds used to retire 
the war debt and to purchase basic industries. 

10. Government Ownership. The government control of in- 
dustry, which has proceeded so rapidly during the war, should 
be perpetuated, and extended, but the ownership should be 
transferred as rapidly as possible to the government, so as 
to make possible the extinction of the interest and dividend 
charges, and the increase of wages, and decrease of rates. 

11. Industrial Democracy. The government policy of recog- 
nizing and fostering labor unions in war work should be ex- 
tended. In all government-owned industries, including the 
post office, the schools, and the railroads, boards of directors 
should be elected by proportional representation by the em- 
ployes of the respective industries. These boards of directors 
should rapidly take over the management of the respective 
industries, should appoint the general managers, and should 
determine policies, subject only to control by Congress. Later 

34 



the advisability of giving industries direct representation in 
Congress, possibly in the Senate, should be considered. 

12. Peace Settlement. President Wilson's program of inter- 
national justice as a preventive of future wars, of international 
organization to preserve peace, and of disarmament to release 
money and man power for social reconstruction, should be 
supported by unlimited force on the field of war, and by un- 
stinted and enthusiastic endorsement at home. 

B. For original thought and discussion: 

1. If you do not approve of the above program, amend it, 
or work out, as a substitute, your own plan for realizing 
the basic principles of social justice. 

2. Discuss practical methods of promoting whatever pro- 
gram you think will meet these ideals. 

3. Has the program of social measures affecting soldiers 
and war workers, been worked out in a democratic manner? 

C. Suggested readings: 

Resolutions on Reconstruction of the British Labor Party. 
Survey, 40:500-504 (Aug. 3, 1918). 

The Social Revolution in England. Arthur Gleason. Cen- 
tury, 93:565-572 (Feb., 1917). 

The Post-Bellum Labor Situation. Sergeant-Ma j or Eugene 
E. Greenhut. 

X. OUR PART IN THE POLITICS OF PROGRESS.* 

What can we individually do to help promote social justice in 
America ? 

A. Two contrasted conceptions of social reconstruction are 
current : 

1. The idea of sudden, forcible overthrow of existing 
powers, wholesale abrogation of existing economic and 
social institutions, and the attempted installation of a 
complete new social system in one piece, as exemplified in 



*More than one session may profitably be spent in discussing this 
section. 

35 



the Russian and French Revolutions. This method is nec- 
essary where the ballot is denied or essentially curtailed, 
and where free speech, free assemblage, and freedom of 
the press are permanently restricted. 

2. The idea of continuous evolution from one social state 
to another, retaining at each step enough of the old system 
to keep economic life continuously functioning, progress 
being achieved, not chiefly by force, but by education, 
agitation, and information. This idea is exemplified in 
the development of British institutions in recent decades. 
Such evolution is the constructive method which must 
always be resorted to in the long run. 

B. To promote her social evolution, America needs informed 
public sentiment on social issues, and political machinery re- 
sponsive to such sentiment. 

1. The mass of the people have always had the potential 
power to obtain justice: 

a. By weight of numbers they could at any time have 
revolted ; 

b. By refusing en masse to work, they could have forced 
reform; 

c. In democratic countries, a sufficient majority of the 
voters can alter the government to any degree, and 
can pass any legislation it desires. 

2. That great injustice still survives in spite of these three 
all-powerful weapons, is due to lack of inspiration, infor- 
mation, and organization on the part of the exploited 
masses. 

C. Creating enlightened public sentiment: 

1. The power of informed opinion is proved by the spread 
of workmen's compensation, industrial sanitation, woman 
suffrage, prohibition, and vice restriction. These and 
other movements are winning by exerting the pressure of 
public opinion on existing political parties and on employ- 
ers. The progressive social war policies enumerated in 
Section IX have resulted directly from social education. 

36 



2. Characteristics of sound public-opinion building are: 

a. Impartiality — it should not be controlled by any 
economic class or interest. 

b. Decentralization — every point of view should be 
worked out with the greatest freedom. The organiza- 
tion of propaganda should be for the purpose of stimu- 
lating, not controlling thought. 

c. Facts should take the place of theories as far as 
possible. 

d. Broader and broader areas of agreement should be 
created. 

e. Leaders of thought should be reached. To convince 
tens of labor leaders, editors, preachers, employers, or 
legislators, is worth convincing hundreds of second- 
hand thinkers. 

3. Every person who is earnestly discussing social prob- 
lems is helping to build the future. To organize groups 
for such study, and to promote publicity on social issues, is 
to become an officer in the army of thought. This syllabus 
aims to be a stimulus and vehicle for such discussion. 

D. The politics of progress. In a democracy, orderly social 
progress, as far as the government is involved, comes only 
through political organizations. The progressive who wishes 
to see social ideals crystalized into legislation, must concern 
himself therefore not only with agitation, but with parties 
and politicians. 

1. Should one work for social progress through the old 
parties ? 

a. In favor of the Republican Party, it is urged that it 
gave birth to the Progressive movement and that Pro- 
gressive leaders are now represented in its councils. 

b. In favor of action through the Democratic Party, 
it is urged that it, historically, has tended to represent 
the common people, and that the present administration 
has secured such social legislation as the Federal Child 
Labor Law, the Adamson Eight Hour Law, and the War 
Risk Insurance Law, and has promoted such policies as 
recreation and vice-repression for soldiers. 

37 



c. For both it is urged that the attempt to create a new 
major political party would prove abortive, and that 
to take a portion of the progressives out of a major 
party tends to throw the control into the hands of the 
reactionaries; also that the abuses of party organiza- 
tion are likely to occur in any party, and should be re- 
formed, not abandoned. 

% Should the progressive support the Socialist Party? 

a. In favor of such action it is urged that this is the 
only party with a thorough-going social program ; that 
the other parties simply borrow as palliatives some of 
its planks ; that the two old parties stage merely sham 
battles in which the capitalists who finance both parties 
are sure to win; that the party has had a swift and, 
until 1916, uninterrupted growth, and bids fair to be- 
come, like the socialist parties in Europe, a great 
political force; that, even as a minority party, its plat- 
forms and its agitation . have been the source of most 
of the progressive legislation in the country ; and that 
it is far better to sacrifice temporary gains which might 
come through the old parties, in order to build up a 
proletarian party which can ultimately control the 
government. 

b. In opposition to supporting the Socialist Party, it is 
urged that this organization advocated policies on the 
war which would have resulted in the victory of Ger- 
many ; that it preaches class conflict, leading to revolu- 
tion, and antagonizes any efforts of capitalists or the 
middle class toward social justice ; that its materialistic 
philosophy ignores such vital forces as unselfish ideal- 
ism; and that each of these characteristics arises 
inevitably out of the Marxian philosophy to which it is 
committed. 

3. Should the progressive help to build up the new National 
Party? 

a. In favor of such action, it is urged that the old 
parties are founded upon personal favoritism, not upon 
ideals; that the Republican Party has reabsorbed the 
Progressives, but not their principles; that the Demo- 

38 



cratic Party does not understand or genuinely approve 
the progressive policies of the Wilson administration, 
and that when he perforce steps out in 1920 a reaction- 
ary administration is likely to succeed him; that the 
attitude of the Socialist Party toward America's part 
in the war has destroyed the possibilities of that party 
as an instrument of social progress ; that the formation 
of a new party to represent the constructive radicalism 
of America is therefore inevitable, and that the Nation- 
al Party, by its ideals and form of organization, affords 
such a party. 

E. For original thought and discussion: 

1. Compare the chances which the National Party has of 
success, with those of the Progressive Party. 

2. What chances are there that organized labor would par- 
ticipate in the formation of a party of social progress? 

3. Discuss the relation of the Non-Partisan League to such 
a movement. 

4. What should be the relation of the church to the politics 
of progress? 

5. What will be the effect on social progress of the political 
power of the returning soldiers ? 

6. Compare the causes, aims and procedure of the French 
and Russian Revolutions. 

7. What, and how important, are the functions of social 
revolutionists in a program of social evolution? 

8. Discuss the methods of the Fabian Society. 

F. Suggested readings : 

The French Revolution. Shailer Matthews, 1901. Pp. 31- 
37, 111-137, etc. (Longmans-Green, $1.25.) 

Russia in Upheaval. E. A. Ross, 1918. Chaps. VI-XIII, pp. 
349 ff. (Century, $2.55.) 

The Russian Revolution in Retrospect and Forecast. J. Y. 
Simpson. Nineteenth Century and After, Apr., 1918, pp. 
715-733. 

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The Rebirth of Russia. C. Hapgood Wright. Contemp. 
Rev., Apr., 1918, pp. 365-368. 

The Madness of Russia. John A. Bradford. Bellman, Mar. 
2, 1918, pp. 239-241. 

Social Psychology. E. A. Ross, 1908. Chaps. XVIII and 
XXII, pp. 307-323 and 346-354. (Macmillan, $1.50.) 

A New Liberal Party. Harold Kellock. Century, 94: 
885-890 (Oct, 1917). 

The Progressive Party. Theodore Roosevelt. Century, 86, 
pp. 826-836. 

Homeless Radicals. New Republic, 7:211-212 (1916). 

Why Idealists Quit the Socialist Party. Nation, 104:65-66, 
181-182 (1917). 

Labor and Politics. John Fitch. Survey, 40:287-289, 
363-365 (June 8 and 29, 1918). 

A Presidential Straw Vote of Union Labor. Literary Di- 
gest, 53:871-874, 919-922 (1916). 

Political Revolt in the Northwest. Charles Merz. New 
Republic, 13:15-17, 44-46, 71-73, 121-123 (1917-1918). 

The Two Parties in 1916. Herbert Croly. New Republic, 
8:286-291. 

Third Parties and Their Leaders. Nation, 103, pp. 27-28, 
511-512 (1916). 

The National Party Platform and Constitution, Program 
for Constructive Democracy, and other literature, sent on 
application to The National Party, 138 N. LaSalle St., 
Chicago. 

Progressive Democracy. Herbert Croly, 1914. (Macmil- 
lan, $2.00.) 



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